Dark Horse June/July Books

“Penny Arcade is a scathing send-up of geek culture with jokes sharp
enough to injure an eye.” — Booklist

***1/2 (of four stars) “Tycho and Gabe are two of the great webcomic
icons of the last decade.” —Metro Toronto

Verily, the heroes of Penny Arcade return in the second volume of
valiant chivalric deeds of brave heroism, heroic gallantry, and gallant
bravery! Forsooth! Sir Gabe and Sir Tycho return in Epic Legends of the
Magic Sword Kings!

Collecting all the Penny Arcade strips posted online in the year 2001,
Volume 2 includes creator commentary, an introduction from somebody
sort of famous, and a gallery of artwork from the Penny Arcade card
game!

If you haven't heard of Penny Arcade, the most popular online comic
ever, it might not be too late to salvage whatever reputation you have
and get in on the fun all the cool people have been having. We won't
tell anyone.

Penny Arcade Volume 2: Epic Legends of the Magic Sword Kings features
story by Jerry Holkins with art by Mike Krahulik. This collection
arrives on sale July 26 with a retail price of $12.95.

Cover image: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-661

ISBN: 1-59307-541-3

Japanese myths come to life in Yoshitaka Amano's
The Tale of Genji

Yoshitaka Amano has been praised around the world for his lush
watercolors and evocative work dealing with myth and legend. In The
Tale of Genji Mr. Amano brings his considerable talent to retelling one
of the most famous of Japanese myths. Originally written by Murasaki
Shikibu shortly after 1000 AD and considered by most scholars to be the
first novel ever written, The Tale of Genji is the story of the
romantic adventures of Genji, the amazingly handsome prince and his
many romantic conquests. Told through stunning paintings, Mr. Amano
brings this classic story to life for a new generation.

As one of the most respected stories of all time, The Tale of Genji
holds a worldwide place of honor among lovers of myth and legend. This
book will appeal to the legions of Vampire Hunter D fans worldwide, as
well as fans of his work on Sandman (written by New York
Times-bestselling author Neil Gaiman) and Wolverine (with award-winning
author Greg Rucka).

Amano: The Tale of Genji features more than forty paintings by
Yoshitaka Amano. It arrives on sale July 26 with a retail price of
$24.95.

The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense faces its worst tragedy
ever as the war against the plague of frogs reaches a devastating new
level. Heralded by a bizarre villain from the B.P.R.D.'s past, an
ancient monster-god marches across the American heartland portending an
end to the reign of men, and leaving a permanent mark on the Bureau.

Hellboy-creator Mike Mignola continues his collaboration with artist
Guy Davis and co-writer John Arcudi to unravel a tale that will leave
the earth shaken, the B.P.R.D. shattered, and major member of the team
lying dead. This collection includes a sketchbook section chronicling
Guy Davis's creation of the abominations unleashed in The Black Flame.

B.P.R.D.—The Black Flame features story by Mike Mignola and John
Arcudi, with art by Mike Mignola and Guy Davis. It arrives on sale
July 12 with a retail price of $17.95.

Cover image: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-704

ISBN: 1-59307-550-2

Mike Mignola to write special Conan Hall of the Dead adaptation with
Conan #29

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola takes over writing duties on Conan for a
three-part story adapting one of Robert E. Howard's legendary “lost”
story fragments, “The Hall of the Dead”!

Pursued by a small army, Conan heads for shelter in the ancient ruins
of a forgotten city, lured by a flimsy rumor of treasure. Instead, he
finds the fallen idols of twisted gods and a lot of croaking creatures.
Luckily, frogs are no match for a Cimmerian . . . or are they?

From artist Cary Nord and comics visionary Mike Mignola comes one of
the weirdest tales ever cooked up by Howard, taking Conan on an
adventure far darker, and slimier, than he's ever faced before.

Conan #29 features story by Mike Mignola with art by Cary Nord and
cover by Tony Harris. It arrives on sale June 21 with a retail price
of $2.99.

Cover image: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=10-941

Conan battles supernatural forces in the Far East in Conan And The
Demons Of Khitai collection

Set many years in the future from the award-winning ongoing series,
Conan and the Demons of Khitai marks Conan's first appearance as King
in Dark Horse's best-selling comics revival of the legendary fantasy
hero.

When King Conan receives an invitation from the Eastern kingdom of
Khitai to open trade in precious jewels and spices, he leads a small
army into this long-mysterious land. Yet to do so is perilous, as
those who have requested his company may have far more devious
intentions, and beasts unseen by Western eyes lurk amidst the shadows.

“Over the course of my career, I have walked down many paths, but never
did I imagine I would one day travel the road to Khitai with Conan the
Cimmerian!” remarked writer Akira Yoshida. “Guiding the King of
Aquilonia through these strange Asian lands has been a daunting one. As
Robert E. Howard had written of the mystic land of Khitai, but never in
any great detail, we were all strangers in a strange land on this
journey. But working with editor Scott Allie and artist Paul Lee has
been a pleasure and the adventure we've taken with Conan is one we hope
everyone will be talking about.”

Conan and the Demons of Khitai features story by Akira Yoshida and art
by Paul Lee and Pat Lee. It arrives on sale July 12 with a retail price
of $12.95.

Cover image: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=10-588

ISBN: 1-59307-543-X

Freeing trapped souls makes for good business for entrepreneurial
college students in Kurosagi
Corpse Delivery Service

Your body is their business! Five young students at a Buddhist
university find little call for their job skills in today's Tokyo . . .
among the living, that is! All that stuff in college they were told
would never pay off—channeling, dowsing, ESP—gives them a direct line
to the dead who are still trapped in their corpses and can't move on to
the next reincarnation. To put their skills to use the students form
the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service: whether suicide, murder,
accident, or illness, they'll carry your body wherever it needs to go
to free your soul!

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service features story by Eiji Ohtsuka and
art by Housui Yamazaki. Volume 1 arrives on sale July 19 with a retail
price of $10.95.

Dark Horse Comics is proud to present the first volume of Museum of
Terror, a series of horror stories by Japan's foremost creator of
horror manga Junji Ito.

The first story in this series is Ito's award winning “Tomie”, the
story of an eternally youthful and beautiful high school girl, whose
admirers are obsessed to the point of murdering her. But to their
horror, she is reincarnated over and over!

Ito's tale of Tomie has been turned into a hugely popular film in Japan
and his works have resulted in seven movies and five made-for-TV
specials including Uzumaki, the thrilling and grotesque manga and film.

Museum of Terror Volume 1 features story and art by Junji Ito. It
arrives on sale July with a retail price of $13.95.

Cover image: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-517

ISBN: 1-59307-542-1

A harrowing tale of revenge is told in the manga that inspired the hit
film in Old Boy Volume 1

Ten years ago, they took him and confined him in a private prison. He
doesn't know who took him. He doesn't know why. For ten years his only
contact with the outside world has been a television set and the voices
of his jailers. In time, he lost himself, and transformed into
something else, something hard, something lethal. Without warning one
day his incarceration ends, again without explanation. He is sedated,
stuffed inside a suitcase, and dumped in a park. When he awakes, he is
free to reclaim what's left of his life . . . and what's left is
revenge!

Old Boy is an intense, bare-knuckled urban thriller in the tradition of
Pulp Fiction and Payback and is the manga that inspired the critically
acclaimed 2003 film. The Oldboy film, directed by Chan-Wook Park, was
awarded the Grand Jury prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Old Boy Volume 1 features story by Garon Tsuchiya with art by Nobuaki
Minegishi and is presented non-Westernized. It arrives on sale July 5
with a retail price of $10.95.

Cover image: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-755

ISBN: 1-59307-568-5

Spread the weird with Pete Von Sholly's
Extremely Weird Stories

Tired of ordinary weird stories? What you need are some Extremely Weird
Stories—and we're here to tell you just where to find them!

Experience horror, babes, and laughs! See monsters from beyond the
grave and before the dawn of history! See Scottish Lakes, black magic,
and psychotic pseudo-scientists! Musty museums, virtual video vermin,
and foul fables! See “things” that crawl and claw from the pages of
putrid pulps and under the covers of creepy comics! See stuff you'll
hope never sees you!

“Paul Jenkins' writing is mirrored by Humberto Ramos's excellent art,
which is bold and sophisticated.” — Comics International

“…writer Paul Jenkins seemed to have a firm grasp on the essence of the
genre's appeal while weaving a tight yet complex mystery thriller that
left me on the edge of my seat as I finished each
issue.”—BrokenFrontier.com

From Paul Jenkins and Humberto Ramos, the best-selling creative team
behind Marvel's Spectacular Spider-Man, comes a sophisticated murder
mystery set in the unlikeliest of places—The Vatican.

Charlie Northern may be one of the best detectives in Scotland Yard but
that doesn't keep him from enjoying a night off curled up with a good
book of conspiracy theories and a full pack of cigarettes. That is,
until an old friend shows up at his door with the news that a
high-ranking Vatican official and probable successor to the Pope has
mysteriously died. Now, Northern must travel to Rome and seek out the
facts in a place legendary for keeping its secrets. There are forces at
work in The Holy See that want Northern to fail—forces darker and more
ancient than any in his favorite dime-store paperbacks.

“Revelations is a labor of love. It's a story quite a few years in the
making and it is quite honestly one of my favorite books I have ever
worked on,” commented series writer Paul Jenkins. “I hope you'll see
that for every twist there is a turn, that nothing is quite what it
seems and I hope you'll agree that the character of Charlie Northern
leaps off the page. If you want to know the truth behind the darkest
secret of the Catholic Church, if you want to learn new and creative
ways to swear at cigarettes, please join us.”

Jenkins continued, “Working with Humberto on this has been a revelation
in and of itself — I've had the privilege to see the guy's art on a
monthly basis for a couple of years. I never imagined I would see
anything like this. He's a good lad, grade one. Check it out because
it is vastly different from anything else he has done and it's bloody
amazing!
Like I said, nothing is quite what it seems. Unless you are God, in
which case it's all completely bleeding obvious.”

Revelations features story by Paul Jenkins with art by Humberto Ramos.
It arrives on sale July 26 with a retail price of $17.95.

Following the May release of the special 25¢ Star Wars: Legacy preview
comic, the adventures of the Star Wars galaxy continue with the first
issue of an all-new series set more than a century after Return of the
Jedi and the New Jedi Order!

The Jedi Temple is attacked, an Emperor is betrayed, and the Sith are
born anew…a lot can happen in a hundred years, but all of the above
happens just in this first issue! Not since Luke Skywalker first
stepped aboard the Millennium Falcon has the galaxy seemed like such a
vast, exciting, dangerous place!

“I remember the thrill I got the first time I saw the original Star
Wars movie,” commented series writer John Ostrander. “Amazing visuals,
gripping story, characters great and small, heroes and villains. It
swept you up and got you excited. That's what we're looking to do with
Legacy. While we're staying true to Star Wars traditions and
continuity, Legacy is going to be accessible to even the casual Star
Wars fans. These aren't going to be only great Star Wars comics,
they're going to be great comics— PERIOD!”

This is a perfect jumping-on point for any reader—an epic beginning to
an untold chapter of the greatest adventure in the universe!

Star Wars: Legacy #1 features script by John Ostrander and art by Jan
Duursema, Dan Parsons and Brad Anderson with a cover by Adam Hughes.
Issue #1 arrives on sale June 7 with a retail price of $2.99.

Cover Image: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-453

Dark secrets bring nightmares to life in Greg Ruth's Sudden Gravity

Greg Ruth, acclaimed artist on Freaks of the Heartland and several
issues of Dark Horse's Conan series, brings you a tale worthy of David
Lynch and Stanley Kubrick's feverish dream sequences. Collected for the
first time and featuring Ruth's unique art style (crafted here using a
ball point pen!), Sudden Gravity will haunt readers long after the last
panel is read.

Built on a site of great and forgotten power, the mammoth Bentham
International Hospital was to be the very definition of modern medical
science at its best. But over the years, the specters and dark secrets
of the Hospital began to bore away at its heart, leaving its
foundations cracked and vulnerable to the oldest of horrors and
nightmares. When a prominent Commissioner of the City's Housing and
Urban Development Department is brought in for evaluation after
murdering her family, the haunted secrets of the hospital begin to
unravel, leaving no one untouched.

“I originally conceived the book to be the beginning of an long line of
stories surrounding the birth, life and crumbling death of the hospital
itself all moved along backwards and forwards as a melodrama,”
commented writer/artist Greg Ruth. “There are layers upon layers of
hidden keys and meanings and messages stowed away in the story inspired
by Geomancy, Perceptual theory, Chaos Magic and Masonic-like conspiracy
material. Sudden Gravity itself is a really prologue to this total
world parallel to our own that can be navigated by way of a classic
murder mystery. I wanted to pit hard science against magical realism
and let them both draw out each other's fallacies and strengths. You'll
come in with questions, find answers, and you'll leave with new ones.
It's escapism to make you think.”

Sudden Gravity features story and art by Greg Ruth. It arrives on sale
July 12 with a retail price of $10.95.

Cover image: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-747

ISBN: 1-59307-565-0

Featuring a rare short story, Usagi Yojimbo Volume 20: Glimpses Of
Death offers a glimpse into a young Usagi

Wandering ronin Usagi Yojimbo is alone once again, having emerged from
his travels with young Jotaro. His brief respite from danger was not
destined to last long, for adventure in feudal Japan waits for no one!

In this volume of the internationally acclaimed series, master
storyteller Stan Sakai treats readers to intriguing tales of Usagi on
his own and catches up with a bevy of fan-favorite
characters—“whodunit” maestro Inspector Ishida has another puzzling
mystery to solve, bounty hunters Gen and Stray Dog are each on the tail
of the possessed swordswoman Inazuma, bodyguard Tomoe has a new
political rival in Lord Noriyuki's court, and Priest Sanshobo's temple
is plagued by a vile demon! Throughout these stories we follow Usagi as
he is roped into a covert smuggling operation, escorts a cantankerous
old woman through dangerous territory, assists an inventor with a
visionary flying machine, and once again encounters a vengeful young
samurai.

This book features a rare short story starring Katsuichi and young
Usagi which has never seen print in the Usagi comics series!

Usagi Yojimbo Volume 20: Glimpses of Death features art and story by
Stan Sakai. The softcover edition arrives on sale July 12th with a
retail price of $15.95. The hardcover edition arrives on sale August
2nd with a retail price of $59.95.

Cover image: http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-734

ISBN: 1-59307-631-2 (hardcover)
ISBN: 1-59307-549-9 (softcover)

All new Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian tales to make up Dark Horse
Free Comic Book Day offering

Dark Horse is pleased to announce its 2006 Free Comic Book Day offering
will be in the form of a special split issue featuring original Star
Wars and Conan material. Each story is ten pages long and the content
for both is appropriate for all ages.

Our Star Wars tale “Routine Valor” is set during the Clone Wars and
features Commander Cody and his troops in an indefensible position
facing an unassailable enemy. Star Wars: Routine Valor features story
by Randy Stradley with art by Doug Wheatley.

In the Conan story “The Spear,” a sorcerer receives a vision about a
tremendous force washing over the world, and decides it's a prophecy
ordering him to revive his sleeping god—but he should have considered
it fair warning about his own run- in with Conan! “The Spear” features
story by Tim Truman with art by Paul Lee and Dave Stewart.

Free Comic Book Day is Saturday May 6, 2006.

FROM DH PRESS

Famed filmmaker John Landis is chronicled for the first time ever in
John Landis biography

An exhaustive career retrospective about the groundbreaking
revolutionary filmmaker, told through exclusive interviews with Landis
as well as featuring essays, interviews and remembrances by his
colleagues, contemporaries and members of the film industry and
reviewers. Contributors include Joe Dante, Jack Arnold, Jaimie Lee
Curtis, Wes Craven, Rick Baker, Frank Oz, Jim Abrahams and others.
Illustrated with many exclusive photographs from Mr. Landis' many
films, some reproduced here for the first time from the director's
personal collection taken on the set by Mr. Landis.

John Landis has remained one of the most popular filmmakers of his
generation since exploding on the cinema scene in the early 1970s.
There has never been a major biography/autobiography of Landis. Landis
was recently a member of the Masters of Horror film series and has two
new films in the works due for release in 2006 and 2007.

John Landis is written by Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan, a film journalist who
serves as director of the Torino Film Festival hosted each year in
Italy and features a special introduction by Dan Aykroyd. It arrives
in November with a retail price of $29.95.

ISBN-10: 1-59582-041-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-5982-041-9

It's Frankenstein versus Jack The Ripper in Frankenstein: The Shadow Of
Frankenstein

The classic Universal Pictures version of the Frankestein legend is
re-imagined for the twenty-first century in this all-new novel!

Following his lab's explosion, Henry and Elizabeth Frankenstein head to
London for a rest (and to avoid possible criminal charges). The
monster, still alive, follows, but winds up in the Whitechapel
district. There, he's mistaken for a disfigured, mentally disabled man
and befriended by local prostitutes. When one of the streetwalker's is
horribly murdered, the creature roams the area, hoping to protect the
survivors.

This brings him in contact with the real killer—Jack the Ripper. After
47 years, he's back in action. The Ripper's string of brutal killings
in 1887 were actually sacrifices, dark rituals that extended his life.
Now he's aging again and desperate to remain alive, and sees in the
reanimated corpse of the Frankenstein monster a possible new way to
live forever. Henry, the monster and Jack the Ripper's fates become
entwined as Jack the Ripper hatches a plan to frame the monster for the
killings, to force Henry to reveal his secrets of life and death.

Frankenstein: The Shadow of Frankenstein novel is written by Stefan
Petrucha. It arrives on sale in July with a retail price of $6.99.

Travel back in time (and maybe have your gender swapped) to seven different periods of Japanese history, all from the comfort of your couch.― The history of Japanese civilization is expansive, predating the Common Era by 10,000 years (the Jomon period). There's much more ground to cover compared to what kids get in U.S. history classes in high school, which rarely cover anything before the Boston T...

Junji Ito's death-stench horror gets the deluxe treatment with a new hardcover omnibus, but the subject matter might not work for everyone.― Junji Ito is inarguably one of the masters of horror manga, utilizing both horror (physical revulsion) and terror (psychological reaction) to create gut-churning tales of the world gone mad. To a degree, he carries this out in his two-volume series Gyo from 200...

Voice actor/director/professional Dungeons & Dragons player Liam O'Brien returns to the podcast after a 5-year hiatus to discuss his roles in Fate/Zero and Sailor Moon, along with the landscape for anime voice acting now and what it's like to be Gollum.― ANNCast Episode 234: Podcastoes O'Brien Get the Flash Player to see this player. Voice actor/director/professional Dungeons & Dragons player Liam ...

If you went to an anime convention this summer or have used the internet lately, you may notice anime fans seem to have fallen in love with Steven Universe. Why? Because the show loves them right back.― If you've been to an anime convention in the past year, you've probably seen colorful, gem-studded cosplay like this filling the hallways. Photo credit links: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom...

If you've got questions for the director of the high-flying fantasy series The Pilot's Love Song, we've potentially got answers for you!― We've been given the opportunity to interview The Pilot's Love Song director Toshimasa Suzuki, and we need your help! NISA, who will be releasing the fantasy action drama The Pilot's Love Song on bluray September 22nd, asked for fan questions for Mr. Suzuki, whos...

Bee-Train's 2001 girls-with-guns classic returns on Blu-Ray, and holds up surprisingly well, despite some mediocre animation.― Not all older series deserve the Blu-Ray treatment. For some it is because the show just isn't as iconic as people might like to think, while for others it's because the quality was never BD worthy in the first place. Noir, fortunately, does hold up well enough that its tran...

Egypt Arc is JoJo in peak condition, as memorable and engaging an adventure as you could hope for. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is back.― When we last left our heroes, they'd just arrived on the shores of Egypt, escaping the literal jaws of defeat in order to finally save Jotaro's mother. The journey there had been a lengthy and sometimes inconsistent one, with their various adventures indeed being plen...

The creator of the hit manga, recently adapted into a popular anime series, talks about her inspirations, how she got her start, and what it's like to watch your manga become a TV show.― As you might guess from the story, the main character of the story is a high school roughneck named Ryu Yamada. Yamada meets cute, quiet, and studious Urara Shiraishi, who is his complete opposite in almost every wa...